An Interview with Dr. Rich

I decided to interview Dr. Peter Rich from Brigham Young University about his work as and preparation to become a professor. I have had long aspirations to teach and research at the university level as my profession. I’ve already had some experience teaching at the university level. Dr. Rich provided a lot of helpful insights that I had not known before from my experience working with full-time faculty. Below is a summary of what I learned from my interview with Dr. Rich, as well as a discussion of what this means for me in my preparation for my future profession.

Research

I first began by asking Dr. Rich what his day-to-day work involved. Research was one important responsibility. Most people interested in this profession know the saying “publish or perish,” but for Dr. Rich, publishing is more than just meeting the demands of the job. “It hit me why we write: it’s to disseminate... knowledge, so that we can actually build a knowledge base, and stop making the same stupid mistakes over and over.” He related his graduate experience, studying video annotation tools. A lot of the people working in this area presented at conferences, but didn’t publish much of their working, resulting in little dissemination of their findings to other people interested in that area of research. He also stated that these people “were spending all their money in development, but nobody was sharing what they were learning from development with each other.” He realized that publishing research could really simplify and enlighten the work of those researching and developing on a certain topic. “It changed, for me, that I have to write to survive to I write to communicate to build on this community.”

Dr. Rich became a professor because he wanted to research what he was interested in learning more about. He was very interested in design and development, but from past experience, he knew research was more important to him. Because of that, he focused more on research courses rather than taking studio development courses. “The more tools you have in your toolbox, the more you’ll be able to ask and answer your questions.” Natural inquisitiveness helps as well to being a good researcher.

Because research is important, Dr. Rich works hard to set aside time to research. “I have to set time aside for writing, and I have to honor that time.” There’s a lot of autonomy as a professor. He likes the autonomy, that he has a lot of choice over when he works, how he works, what he researches. He particularly likes that he can shift his schedule to meet family needs. At the same time, having that autonomy can be a challenge. “You’ve got to be self-motivated and self-organized.... No one is looking over my shoulder.”

Teaching

Teaching is obviously an important part of Dr. Rich’s work. He teaches a 2-2-1 yearly course load (two courses in the fall, two in the winter, and one in the spring or summer). This course load depends on the type of institution—whether it is a research or a teaching institution. A teaching institution teaches more courses and puts greater emphasis on student ratings. Research institutions teach but put more emphasis on publishing and obtaining funds. UVU, a teaching institution, considers teaching four courses a semester as a full-time workload. At other research institutions, a 2-3 course load is usually typical, with summer as off-time. Dr. Rich mentioned that a first year professor’s course load at a research institution is typically a 1-1 or 1-2, allowing for more time to establish oneself in the research.

Dr. Rich explained a concept that sometimes occurs at other research institutions, called “buy out your time.” While some faculty are assigned courses to teach, these faculty may take funding obtained through grants to hire instructors to teach their assigned courses so they can give more time to research. Some faculty teach very little, which is interesting to think about in light of the work of a university. While teaching is important, little of a university’s funds come from student tuition. Much of the money a university has access to comes from donations and grants for research.

Teaching and interacting with students is one of his favorite aspects of his work. Grading is an important part of this work, but it is one of the least favorite aspects of his work. Giving feedback and reading through student work is sometimes tedious and technical, and at other times invigorating and enjoyable. Dr. Rich says you have to be prepared to give a lot of feedback on writing and projects.

Service

In addition to teaching and research, Dr. Rich spends a lot of time giving service to the university and to organizations in the field. Faculty members are asked to serve on all kinds of campus committees to help attend to the university’s needs. Serving on the IRB is a common one. Serving on dissertation and thesis committees is a major part of Dr. Rich’s work. “We chair usually between 8-12 students between masters and PhD, but then you are on another 20 or so committees.” This work involves giving a lot of feedback on student writing and projects. Once again, Dr. Rich emphasizes the need to like giving feedback on people’s papers, because that is a large part of what professors do. The university also values service given to the fields that faculty are a part of. This service is often given by serving as an officer for organizations in the field.

Dr. Rich particularly loves the collegiality present at BYU. He loves the atmosphere at BYU, and he loves his colleagues. In other departments at other schools, there can be a lot of politics and conflict. Here, he feels, there is more collegiality. Faculty members sometimes disagree with each other, but they can work with disagreements. At BYU, Dr. Rich says he also feels like he can “be me” and share what he thinks about gospel topics and how it relates to what he is teaching. Even the community around BYU, particularly the instructional designers, have been enjoyable to work with. Dr. Rich has invited instructional designers to provide projects and to serve as peer reviewers for students. These people have been very gracious and helpful. They have a high regard for BYU, which helps make for a successful and meaningful program.

Preparation

I asked Dr. Rich what advice he had to someone preparing to teach and research at the university level. For classes, Dr. Rich says that instructional design classes are very important. It is essential to know the basics of the field. At the same time, it is also important to take research courses. Writing, publishing, and participating in conferences are very important. Dr. Rich said, “Get in your mind now that you are going to do the article format dissertation – it will hugely benefit you.” Doing the article format dissertation will allow for more publications, and will be more practical.

When preparing for a dissertation, Dr. Rich said to not think in terms of single studies, but to establish a program of inquiry. The idea is that several studies can work towards developing this program of inquiry. People who focus on single studies have a bunch of great ideas and try to cram them all in to the single study. Their committee then recommends simplifying the project, and a lot of students walk away feeling that the committee ruined their project. Having a program of inquiry allows students to develop several single studies that can be simple and specific enough to be effective.

In regards to conferences, Dr. Rich recommends not just going to them, but serving in the organizations there. He served as a communications officer in an organization within AECT, and he got to know a lot of people on a deeper level because he served and worked with them. That is an experience that students can’t have who are just attending conferences. Getting involved really helps with networking, which in turn helps when applying for jobs.

Finally, Dr. Rich recommended getting involved in research projects with other professors. “Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you—step up.” Ask professors if you can do something to work with them on their projects. Sometimes they may have something to do, and other times they may not. But at least they know that you are interested, which can be helpful when they actually do have a project where they need help to complete it. “You’re in charge of yourself—get moving.”